Friday, January 27, 2012

Hello there,well this week at Just Add Ink we have a chance for you to be really inspired! The challenge this week is to case one of the team - Kathy Tanner. She is one talented lady so I have no doubt you will enjoy finding something wonderful to CASE! I loved the card I choose to case at first site. Here's Kathy's card.

And here is my spin on it

I was still working in pink mode when I made this one - so its all Melon Mambo and Pretty in Pink on a Confetti White base. I got to try a couple of new things here - which is always fun - I inked up my embossing folder with Pretty in Pink and then embossed and I used the tulip frame embossing folder for the first time!! It took a little bit of jiggling and fiddling to get the "squares" (they turned out as rectangles in the end) the right size. Then more jiggling and fiddling to get the "squares" arranged in an order I thought looked good. I sponged around all the edges and also added some PIP accents to various swirly and butterfly bits. The front was finished off with some scalloped Mambo ribbon and a sentiment medallion. Got to say I love this elegant design and it was a real delight to CASE Kathy. So I hope you get the chance to as well!

Friday, January 20, 2012

welcome back for a new Just Add Ink challenge. This week we have sketch challenge for you and here it is - a nice square one.

I just happened to be browsing the local craft store and saw some scrapbook frames that were just perfect for making some wall art for my kids rooms and they were square - perfect. Here is what I made for my Miss.

A close up of the gold shimmer

And a close up of one of my favourite bits - I tried stamping on the frame and wrapping it around

I really started from scratch with this, as the frame was a raw pine one and I've got to say it was quite fun! So first I painted it with hot pink acrylic paint (which not surprisingly we had in the house) then once that layer had dried I coated it a couple of times with white acrylic paint. Then once that dried (being summer it didn't take all that long for each layer to dry) I sanded the frame, trying to get a gentle distressed look and also aiming to get some of the pink to show through. Once that was all done I stamped the swirl onto the frame, wrapping it around the sides. Then I sprayed the frame with gold shimmer - liberally ;) After that was all dry then sprayed the frame with sealer, and as the final touch added some rhinestones. Now for the inside. I knew I wanted a big butterfly to be centre element of the sketch and I wanted a substantial one. So I die cut a chipboard one and also one in DSP, glued them together and then embossed. I then sponged the edges of the butterfly with Pretty in Pink and just a touch of Melon Mambo to accent the edges. Made some antenna out of jewelery wire and added some buttons and then more gold shimmer for the butterfly! Underneath the butterfly I have a scalloped square of text DSP (the only bit my daughter did not like but I was equally adamant that it would stay). That was layered over more patterned DSP, I sponged the edges of both layers with PIP and MM again. Ok last thing was to add a sentiment - my little Miss and I both agreed that "follow your dreams" was a good one. Now I just need to make one for my little boyo - I thinking a space theme for his I think.

Right I was up wayyyyy too late last night so I need get to bed - and I have certainly babbled on enough ;0 so many thanks for visiting!! and if you can give the sketch a try. Oh and don't forget the JAI scrapbooking challenge that runs till the last Friday of the month.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Well hello there,most unusually there is a change in the programming this week ;) Why? Well as I'm slowly catching up on my blog browsing (I was so busy before Christmas my Google Reader was up to 700 - yikes!) I came across an idea and a challenge, Brandi Wiggins-Cote's January Squareheaded Pinterest challenge. The challenge was to make a button bracelet - I figured this would be something fun to do with my Miss almost 7 especially since we are on school holidays at the momment. The chance to sit down and tip buttons all over the table came up yesterday and the end result was alot of fun, a delighted daughter and a button bracelet for me and two for her! Here's the pic's.

I used an elastic thread for her bracelets, not that durable but makes it easy for her to get the bracelets on and off. For mine I used some PTI dark chocolate twine and PTI buttons. The glass beads, there are two on my bracelet were ones I had in my stash acquired at a craft fair a few years ago. High time I used them - eh!! The bracelets are pretty simple but considering it took all of about 10 minutes (or less) to make each one I reckon thats OK!

Friday, January 13, 2012

After a short intermission for Christmas and New Year I’m back with a bang ;) The Just Add Ink team have decided to start the year off by celebrating our 100th challenge with a Blog Hop. The theme of the blog hop is to Just Add Crowns (think royalty related theme). You may have just come from Kathy Tanner’s blog, if not make sure you go and check out her very cute princess! You can start the blog hop here, with any of the DT members or at the JAI blog. Because this is a special occasion we are also offering prizes!! – one for commenting on all the DT blogs and one for the winner of the challenge.

When the theme was set for this blog hop one idea immediately popped into my mind, something special I had been saving up to try for my gorgeous girl and seeing as her birthday is coming up it was the perfect time. Now kings and queens (who of course wear crowns, have to keep their crowns somewhere safe don't they ;) - and of course that would be a castle!! I first saw a castle card on Liam Pulcher's blog here and followed her link back to Deneen's tutorial here. I printed Deneen's templates two to a page, so approximately half size. I wanted my finished card to be as close to a standard A5 size, so once I cut out the template pieces I just widen them to 4” for each panel that way I could cut all three panels from one 12x12 piece, and just score the folds.

The glittery 7surprise

The front and back unfolded

Close ups

Since this is my special little girls birthday card I went with a colour combo that would appeal to her tastes – well the pink (Regal Rose) and yellow (Daffodil Delight) do - although she is bit iffy on the Expresso! So starting with a Regal Rose base, I covered the front and back inside panel with DSP (Sweet Stitches), I also prepared a layer of impressed Expresso for the back panel that the front door opens on to. I sandwiched a bit of decorative scalloped trim in between some of these layers. Finally I added one more panel of Expresso for the turret roof. This probably sounds confusing so please do look at the photos. Then I added lots and lots of bling, and garlands of little flowers, with more bling!! Some vines and more flowers finish off the front, and yes those woodgrain doors do open to a little extra glittery surprise! The final touch for the top is a flag to fly from the turret – with a crown (of course ;) and more bling. I kept the layers on the inside pretty flat, a panel to write our birthday message and a large decorative embossed Happy Birthday (yes I’m still loving my coloured embossing powders J). The card opens with a kind of zig zag motion. I can tell you my kids were both entranced and my Mr almost 4 is lobbying hard to get a castle card for his birthday too!

Now don’t forget to keep going through the blog hop and join in the challenge. Next stop is Mae Collins, just click on the blog hop button below to get to Mae’s blog. All the DT blog links are on the JAI blog if there are any hiccups too.

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My name is Kim, I have been stamping and scrapbooking since 2006. I'm married to a great guy and have two lovely children, Miss 12 and Mr 9. We also share our house with two burmese cats. I joined Stampin' Up! as an Independent Demonstrator in May 2009.